Furnace for annealing metals.



R. MASTERS.

FURNACE FOR ANNEALING METALS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.I\. l9l4. 1,241,750.

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Patented Oct. 2, 1917.

R. MASTERS.

FURNACE FOR ANNEALING METALS.

Patented Oct. 2,1917.

ISHEETS-SHEET 2 wf/g/'of MM 'MM ATT'Y R. MASTERS.

FURNACE FOR ANNEALING METALS.

APPLICATION FILED Auml. 1914.

Patented Oct. 2, 1917.

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R. MASTERS.

FURNACE FOR ANNEALING METALS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. ll. 191,4.

Patented Oct. 2, 1917.

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R. MASTERS.

FurmAcE FOR ANNE/ums METALS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.1I.I9I4.

Patented Oct. 2,1917.

TSHEETS-SHEET 5.

R. MASTERS. ruRNAcE FOR ANNALING METALS.

APPLI'CTION FILED AUGJI. |914. 1,241,750. Patented oat. 2,1917. TSHEETS-SHEET 6.

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`FURNACE FOR ANNE'ALING METALS. APPLICATION FILED AuG.II. I9I4.

Patented Oct. 2, 1917.

ISHEETS-SHEET 7.

, UNITED sTATEs yPATENU." OFFICE.

' RICHARD `INI ASTEIIRS, OF DUDLEY, ENGLAND.

FU'ENCE ron ANNEALING METALS.'

To all 'whom t may concern: i

Be it known that 1 RICHARD MASTERS, engineer,a subject of llis Majesty'the King r0f, Great Britain and Ireland, residing at Gallant House,` Dudley, in the county of Worcester, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Furnaces for Annealing Metals, of which the follow- -ingis a specification.

This invention has reference tofurnaces for close annealing metals and'partlcularly for close annealing copper and other metals in the form of wire rods, sheets, strips and the like, the said furnaces .being of that type which have one or more retorts furnished with downwardly projecting inclined m'ouths at each end sealed by dipping into water contained in tanks, the articles to be annealed being passed through the water seals and the retortsby means of a continuous endless chain conveyer vwhich travels upfon 1 rollers outside the furnace and' back along the returntunnels in the bottom of the same.

The objects o f this invention are to construct a fire-brick furnace in combination. 4with La continuous conveyer `which firstly shall effect in working la considerable' econ .i iSecondly to enable the heat'ofthe retort l or retorts to be revulated and controlled throughout the lengt as maybe required to give theabest results; thirdlyv -to combine with the furnace the gas producer which is with `'the conveyer chain removed;

'employed forheating retorts Aso thatV thewhole of the furnace will be selfcontain`ed. Qtherobjectswill a pearfrom avperusal of the following speci cation and arespeci- .fied in the claims appended thereto. Y

In the accompanying drawings, 'Figure l isa part sectionalside elevation of a two -retort furnace constructed in accordancewith this invention j Fig. 2-is a plan of 4thefsalne; Fig. 3 isa-cross sectional elevation of the same ltaken on line Ag A of Figs. 1 and 2 FigJ 3a is an enlarged sectional portion of lthe furnace, similar to Fi 3,

l Jshowing double longitudinal heat flues `oth upper and lower) between the retorts.

. Fig. 4 is' a'longitudinal sectional elevation taken on line B B of Fig. 3;

Fig. y5 is a sectional plan of part ofthe' furnace taken vOnline C Cof Fig. 3;

omy in the fuel required forheating the View of a furnace and gas producer self-contained.

Specification of Lettere Patent. Patented Oct, 2, v19,17, Appucation inea August 11, 1914. serial Nasse-17s.

D D of Fig. 3;

Fig. 7 is a cross sectional elevation taken on lineEEof Fig.4; Fig. 8 is a sectional side elevation of part Fig. 6 `is a sectionalplan taken o n line of the furnace taken on line F F, of Fig. 3,

and

9 is a sectional side elevation taken on line G, G of Fig. 3.

` The two retorts through which the goods are vpassed by the endless conveyer arerespectively marked 1 and 2 and they are built and combined in thebrick-work ofthe furnace as hereinafter described.

f lEach of these retorts has at each end a hood 3 which has an open mouth 4 dipping into a water seal tankthe two tanks at the inlet end of the furnace being marked 5 and the two tanks at the outlet end of the furnace being marked 6. A n endless chain conveyer 7 is provided for each retort and lying passing under suitable idle rollers 10 therein' and the return chain after leaving the end sprocket drumv outside the water seal tank 6 passing back through the return tunnels 11 and 12 built in thebasement of the furnace. Suitable idle rollers 13 are employed at the inlet /and outlet ends ofthe furnace.

tolguidejhe chain throughthe returntun# ne s.

a The conveyer chain 7 driven by'suitable y mechanism which slowly rotates the 8. The hoods 3 are furnished at thelr ends rocket with sight holes 14 in a line with the axis of the retort so that the interior of the same `can be seenwfffrom the outside, said sight holes also being furnished lwith a suitable cover or covers.

The furnace` is lheated .with producer gas and in order to heat the retorts economically and enable the temperature to be regulatedthroughout the length pf the retorts as may be required in the workingof the furnace,

gas and secondary air passages and combustion chamber and heat lues are constructed and combined as follows :'-A

15A is providedwhich may be any known construction and is preferably built .inf-the' brick-work of the furnace so as to make the as producer siderable portion of the length of the furnace and is, arranged underneath and midway between the two retorts 1, 2. The arched top of the main longitudinal gas tunnel 17 #is constructed of hollow horse shoe bricks as hereinafter described so as to form l passages for lheating the secondary air. Above the arch of the main gas tunnel 17 and below the retorts I provide an arched longitudinal combustion chamber 18 made with closed ends and extending along 'the furnace'to about the same length as the main longitudinal gas tunnel 17. The combustion arch 18 has alternate. openings 19 and blank portions 20 along both sides, the openings 19 communicating with horizontal cross passages 21 immediatelybelow theHoors of the retorts 1, 2. These cross passages 21 can conveniently be nine inches wide with nine inch blank parts between each all along underneath each retort,

-\ 22 at the sides of the "retorts and at the top are controlled by sliding dampers 23 which 'can be moved and adjusted through openings 24 in the sides of the furnace such open` ings being closed by suitable doors 25. Be-

' yond the dampers 23 the upwardly extend- .ing passages 22 communicate with arch gas passages 26 immediately over the tops of the i retorts and between arched dividing walls 27 and these arched gas passages 26 communicate with an upper longitudinal heat Hue 28 arranged between the two retorts 1, 2. This upper longitudinal heatHue 28 communicates with the lower longitudinal heat `Hue 32 along .which the waste gases How toward the ends of the furnace where they passinto cross passages 33 andthen down through passages 34 regulated by dampers 29 to lower cross passages 35 leading to the main waste gas VHue 36 which 'is arranged longitudinally in one side of the base of the setting and leads to the stack.l

lThe arrangement for heating the secondary air is preferably as follows The outer ring of thearch of the main longitudinal gas tunnel 17 is formed with what are eso known as'v horse shoe bricks 37 ,as'they have horse shoe shaped cavities 38 along and through which the secondary air Hows outside the ring 39 of the arch ofthe gas tunnel 17. The secondary air for supplying what is theA left hand side in Fig. 3 of this arch of the gas tunnel 17 is led fro-In air" inlet passages` 40 in the left'hand side of the setting, see Figs. 3 and 6, these passages being carried over the arch of the waste gas `Hue 36 which lead to a longitudinal Hue 30 The outer' ends `of ,y these cross passages 21 extend upwardly at longitudinal Hue 3l -at the bottom of the arch of horse shoe bricks 37 (see Fig. 8)..

This passage v-31 is stopped at the center at 40a and in the top of `it there are openings 41 upl which the central air Hows as indicated lby the arrows in Fig. Sand through the cavities 38 inthe horse shoe bricks 37, the air passing up in zigzag form to the outlet nostrils 42 in the arch of the gas Hue 17 at the bottom of the vcombustion chamber 18 where it'meets the gases Howing up the outlets 62 from the gastunnel 17. The secondary air to supply the other side that`is the right hand side of the arch of the gas ftunnel 17 is supplied from two longitudinal airpassages43, 44 at the side of the gas producer one of these air passages, namely that marked 43 being continued through the brick-work of the furnace and communicating withl `a bottom passage 45 below the horse shoe blocks on the left hand side of theproducer arch (see Figs. 6 and 9) and the other secondary air inlet passage 44 conimunicating with the cross passage 46 `which communicates with a' lower passage 47 tol supply air to the horsey 'shoe` bricks' on -the right hand side of the prodiicer arch (see Figs.- Gand 9), said secondary air being heated by passing up through the horse shoe chamber` 18 and in the cross Hues under-- neath the retorts 1 and `2 the heat passing up and around the retorts between thearched dividing walls 27 as aforesaid to the central longitudinal heat Hues 28, 32 and. from thence to the main waste gas flue 36 as aforesaid. A The side walls of the longitudinal heat Hues 28, 32 between the retorts .1, 2 have to be constructed to withstand the thrust of the arches of'theretorts and this is effectedl by building the side walls 49', 50 of these Hues of slabs on edge with intermediate lbricks 51 between the lower parts resting on the arch of the Acombustion chamber 18 the Hoor between the upper longitudinal heat Hue 28 and the lower longitudinal heat Hue 32 being formed with cross ltiles 52 made covering slabs 55 whiclrare also rabbeted 130 to formt-struts and withstand the thrust' of Athe arches of the retorts and of the arched dividing walls 27 between the heat passages over the retorts. The heat passages between .these arched dividing walls 27 are closed at the top by arched cross bricks 57 which abut on to the ends of the covering slabs 55 and these are covered by a continuous arch 58 which extends right over the two retorts 1, 2 from side to side (see Fig. 3).

Itwill be understood that the Agoods to be annealed 'are placed on the conveyer chains at the inlet end of the furnace, say

at 59 in'- Fig. 1, andas the conveyer chain moving slowly along the same and eing q heated to the required degree and ultimately passing out through the other mouth piece 4 at the outlet end of the retort and so on into the water seal tank 6 where the articles are cooled and then pass up out of the water to 60 Fig. 1 where the goods are removed V. froml the conveyer chain properlyl annealed.

A proper supply of steam or vapor such as by the steam pipe 61 is provided to Hll the retort and mouth pieces and drive outl the air to prevent oxidation. The water level is maintained in the tanks by a suit- A able supply and overlow, or by any suit-y able means.

When the furnace is furnished with a single retort then the construction above described is modified somewhat to suit as will readily be understood. 40

Whatl claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is LIAn annealing furnace comprising aiiy elongated retort, an elongated waste gas I -4 chamber at the side of the retort and co-ex- '45 retort andco-extensive therewith, downvdraft Hues near the ends of the retort contensive therewith, a waste gas Hue below the nected terminally with the waste gas chamber and the waste gas Hue respectively, a combustion chamber arranged immediately below the said waste gas chamber and coextensive therewith, the retort being pro- 'f vided in its walls lwith circumferentially extending passages communicating terminally with .the combustion chamber and waste gas chamber respectively and being i' i separated by imperforate longitudinally spaced partitions, means for supplying combustible Huid to the combustion chamber, and independently operable means for'controlling the How of gasl through the said passages of the retort. v p' 2. An annealing Vfurnacet'comprising an elongated retort, `an elongated waste gas .chamber at'the side of theretort and co-extensive therewith, a waste gas Hue below the vretort and co-extensive therewith, downits walls with circumferentially extend- -ing passagescommunicating terminally with the combustion chamber and waste gas chamber respectivel and being separated by imperforate longitudinally spaced parti-l tions, independently operable means for controlling the How ofgas through the said assages of the retort, an arched gas Hue disposed' beneath the combustion chamber land having gas passages in its arched. wall communicating with the latter, means for supplying hot producer gas to the said Hue, the arched wall of the gas Hue being provided further with tortuous air assages leading from the atmosphere to t e combustion chamber to supply secondaryy air thereto.

3. An annealing furnace comprising a pair of elongated retorts disposed in parallel and spaced relation'to each other horizontally, a waste gas chamber disposedbetween the retorts and co-extensive therewith, a waste gas Hue below the retorts and coextensive therewith, downdraft Hues near the ends of the retorts connected terminally with the waste gas chamber and the waste gas Hue respectively, a combustion chamber arranged immediately below the said waste gas chamber and co-extensive therewith, the retorts being rovided in their walls with circumferentia ly extending assages communicating terminally with t e combustion chamber and w'aste as chamber respectively and being separated by imperforate longitudinally spaced partitions, means for supplyin combustible Huid to the combustion cham er, and independently operable means for controlling the How of gas through the said passages of the retort.

4:. An annealing furnace comprising a pair of elongated retorts disposed in parallel and spaced relation to each other horizontally, a waste gas chamber disposed between the retorts and co-extensive therewith, a waste gas Hue below the retorts and co-extensive therewith, down-draft Hues combustion chamber and waste gas chamber respectively and being separated by imperforate longitudinally spaced partitions,

egg 1,241,750

independently operable means for feontrolfrom Y the atmosphere to lthe combustion 10 ling theflow of gas' through the said paschamber to'supply secondary air thereto. sages of the retort, an arched gas flue disln testimony whereof l aflx my signature posed beneath the combustion chamber and inpresenoe of two witnesses.

having gas passages in its arched Wall conimunicating with the latter, means forsup- L BERD MASTERS,

'plying hot producer gas to the said Hue, the Witnesses: l arched Wall of the gas Hue beingyprovided CHARLES BOSWORTHKETLEYQ further With tortuous air passages leading YELIzABlrrH MAY DUDLEY. 

